| Program Model | In Class |
| Artistic Discipline | Visual Art |
| Grades | K | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Min. residency sessions/classroom | 4 |
| Program Requirements | Open spaces on desks for drawing and scuplting |
| Instruction Language(s) | English |
| Availability Notes |
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About the Artist
Jen Hernandez is a Pacific Northwest artist and educator with over 18 years experience in all-ages arts education. Her work centers on visual art, storycrafting and handmade objects as bases for sharing lived experiences and creating future folklore.
Teaching Philosophy
As art is the language of self-expression and efficacy in the midst of challenge, it is the work of the arts educator to empower students with practice and tools to craft their own creative processes, vitalized by lived and shared experience.
Testimonial
"This instructor is the impossible combination of artist, teacher, community builder! I would take ANY class she offered! Very impressed with such an amazing instructor!" -- Adult student in community class
Program Description
Jen Hernandez works with students to use crafting materials, physical embodiment, and small sculpture to explore the physical characteristics of real or imagined creatures, plants, animals, beings. Combined with storytelling, students will imagine the experience of being a creature adapted to a specific environment, and create that creature in polymer clay, with special attention to physical characteristics that help that creature adapt to its environment.
This residency can be combined with concurrent science curriculum exploring the physical adaptations of real animals, plants, bacteria, and fungi. This residency can also center on student imagination, in which students create their own mythical creatures, and embed their imaginations in logic and a level of realism which makes considerations for the needs and adaptations of their imagined creatures and worlds.
Through discussion, students will observe and note the specific characteristics and environments of plants or animals. Jen Hernandez will lead class brainstorming to generate ideas and observations, following the studio process of research and ideation. Then, students will create drawn versions of their creatures, using scientific observation and generating descriptions (either based on real research or imagined creature-creation). Students will practice embodiment and theatre games to physically embody their creatures in their habitats. Through these practices, students will engage with close observation and description.
In the second half of the residency, students will transform 2D drawings into 3D small sculptures using polymer, paper, or earthenware clay. Students will handle sculpting tools and learn sculpting techniques to give their creatures details, based on what they have noted for physical adaptations of the creature.
This residency includes physical movement, discussion and collaboration, as well as observation practice for students to explore science and creative topics. Engaging anti-racist and anti-colonial educational practices, this residency focuses on student embodiment and reflection to develop comprehension and connection with the experience of living things in nature, real or imagined.
This residency can be combined with concurrent science curriculum exploring the physical adaptations of real animals, plants, bacteria, and fungi. This residency can also center on student imagination, in which students create their own mythical creatures, and embed their imaginations in logic and a level of realism which makes considerations for the needs and adaptations of their imagined creatures and worlds.
Through discussion, students will observe and note the specific characteristics and environments of plants or animals. Jen Hernandez will lead class brainstorming to generate ideas and observations, following the studio process of research and ideation. Then, students will create drawn versions of their creatures, using scientific observation and generating descriptions (either based on real research or imagined creature-creation). Students will practice embodiment and theatre games to physically embody their creatures in their habitats. Through these practices, students will engage with close observation and description.
In the second half of the residency, students will transform 2D drawings into 3D small sculptures using polymer, paper, or earthenware clay. Students will handle sculpting tools and learn sculpting techniques to give their creatures details, based on what they have noted for physical adaptations of the creature.
This residency includes physical movement, discussion and collaboration, as well as observation practice for students to explore science and creative topics. Engaging anti-racist and anti-colonial educational practices, this residency focuses on student embodiment and reflection to develop comprehension and connection with the experience of living things in nature, real or imagined.
Keywords
clay, sculpture, science, physiology, animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, creative, imagined
Questions?
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